Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis were among the greatest athletes of the 20th century, but as actors they make Jim Brown look like Denzel Washington. Still, the three low-budget movies included in this set are straightforward efforts that illustrate the obstacles they each had to overcome on their respective climbs to the top in baseball and boxing. Robinson was still in his prime when he portrayed himself in 1950’s “The Jackie Robinson Story.” The 1938 movie “Spirit of Youth” also captures Louis in his prime, as the heavyweight champ portrays a fighter named Joe Thomas whose rise resembles Louis’ own. Finally, “The Joe Louis Story,” from 1953, is a standard biopic, with Coley Wallace portraying Louis.

SPECIAL FEATURES: A rarely heard radio interview from 1940 with Joe Louis.

Three women have told the New York Times that music mogul Russell Simmons raped them, the latest in a cascade of serious allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in entertainment, media, politics and elsewhere.